Search Results for: sensory detail

Details are critical

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When telling stories, details matter. You know that. Details, especially sensory details, enhance your story and allow your reader to: ~ Fully enter the world you are creating ~Suspend disbelief ~ Connect emotionally with your characters “All you need to build your setting is in the world around you. Observe, observe, observe.” — Elizabeth Nunez, January 2017 Writer’s Digest magazine. Elizabeth Nunez: “. . . like me, you probably wanted to be a writer because you found a lot of joy and pleasure by making up stories in your head. I love living in my imagination—so much so that when I was younger, my siblings would say: ‘Divide everything Elizabeth tells you in half. One half is true and the other is make-believe.’” Can you relate to that? I bet you can! “The emotions and conflicts your characters experience can be made more vivid by the setting you choose.” Nunez…

33 Ideas You Can Use for Sensory Starts Prompt #278

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I bet you have heard “Show. Don’t tell.” What does that mean? And how does one do it? Answer: Sensory detail. As described in Imagery and Sensory Detail ala Adair Lara Prompt #277: Make a list of images Expand into sentences Use sensory detail Not interested in making a list?  You are welcome to use any of the 33 ideas listed below to start sensory writing. Or just look around, choose items within your view, and write, using sensory detail, of course. Scroll to bottom of this post for links about using sensory detail in writing. Expand these images into full sentences, using sensory detail. Write as if you had to describe these visions to someone who has never seen or experienced these things. What do these things look like? How do they sound, taste, feel, smell?  Answer these questions and that’s using sensory detail in writing. Write a sentence…

Hop, skip, jump . . . Prompt #746                 

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Below is a list of things you may have experienced. As you read the list, when a word causes a reaction . . . when you notice a feeling in your body . . . use that word or phrase as a writing prompt and start writing. Write about where you were and who was with you. If you ate it, played with it, read it, or wore it, write about it. Add sensory detail of texture . . . what did these things feel like? Add your memory of taste, smell, sound, and what the item looked like. And, of course, you may have also experienced these things as a teen-ager and as an adult. Just Write! Jello salad Hot Wheels Roller Skates Sugar Frosted Flakes Poodle skirt Hopscotch Petticoats Barbie dolls Marbles Jacks Skipping Nancy Drew books Jump rope Little League Drive-in movies Hula hoop Trampoline Parks Used…

How Photography Inspires Writing

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Memorable writing that sparks imagination. Lean in. Hear the writer’s voice on the page. How Photography Inspires My Writing By Simona Carini On January 18, 2016, walking around North Berkeley, I was brought to a halt by the look of a house: the right and left side were painted in different colors and the overall effect was that of a line bisecting the façade. I took a photo and resumed my walk but kept thinking about the house. At home, I wrote down what I had seen and the musings the sight had stirred, then distilled the material into my first poem “The Divorced House” which was published in the journal, Star 82 Review, together with the photo. At the time, I had been writing for almost 10 years, mostly about food and more recently memoir. Poetry was a new endeavor. As I developed my style and voice, I continued…

Strenghten Your Writing

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Ideas for strong writing. Use active voice rather than passive voice. ~From www.dailywritingtips.com  –  sign up to receive free daily emails with writing tips: English verbs are said to have two voices: active and passive. Active Voice: the subject of the sentence performs the action: His son catches fly balls. Creative children often dream in class. Passive Voice: the subject receives the action: The ball was caught by the first baseman.The duty is performed by the new recruits.The dough was beaten by the mixer.The mailman was bitten by the dog. ~From Manuscript Makeover by Elizabeth Lyon Adjectives: Use sparingly and consciously. Overuse indicates a need to find more precise nouns and to show rather than tell. Adverbs: Too often, writers use these to beef up weak verbs. Your goal should be to make verbs strong enough to do the work themselves and kill off your adverbs. You won’t be able…

What nourishes you? Prompt #636

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Prompt: What nourishes you?  Write for 15 minutes. Use sensory details:  sight, smell & sound. ********************* Next: Picture the kitchen in the house you grew up in. See the table and chairs, the counter, the cupboards. Open a cupboard . . . or walk into the pantry. Take a look around. Open the spice cabinet. Breathe deeply. Prompt: What food reminds you of the kitchen in the house where you grew up in? Memories surrounding that food? ********************* Prompt: Take a few words from previous two freewrites and expand, or describe, using smell and sound. For example, from “The Martian Chronicles by” Ray Bradbury: “There was a smell of Time in the air tonight . . . What did Time smell like? Like dust and clocks and people. And if you wondered what Time sounded like, it sounded like water running in a dark cave and voices crying and dirt…

Memory Lane . . . Prompt #635

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Today’s Writing Prompt has four parts. Part 1 Imagine you are going on a trip. Cost is no object. You can go anywhere and take anything you want. Spend a few minutes writing what you would take.                               ************************ Part 2 Mentally add safety items to your suitcase, or duffle bag, or backpack. You might have already packed some of these things. Medical supplies, bandages, antiseptic. Flares, flashlight. Things to protect you: sunscreen, a soft pillow for a cushioned landing in case you fall, a safety net to catch you. ************************ Part 3 Go on a trip down Memory Lane. Choose a time in your life when something deeply affected you or was troubling. Write about a difficult time, a pivotal moment, when something happened and you were not the same after. If you experience a strong reaction while you are writing, stop writing. Shake out your hands, or look…

The Write Spot: Musings and Ravings From a Pandemic Year

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Reviews of The Write Spot: Musings and Ravings From a Pandemic Year Review by Sande Anfang: The Write Spot founder and writing coach Marlene Cullen has been guiding writers through her Jumpstart workshops. I’ve been lucky to participate in some of them. Marlene’s motto is “Just Write,” as in don’t stop to evaluate what you’ve written during the drafting process—just keep the pen moving until the timer rings. In this collection, she has gathered a wide variety of poetry and short prose pieces from sixteen writers. If there’s a common thread that binds this anthology, it’s a grappling with the surreal nature of 2020 and the coronavirus pandemic. Being forced to upend our “normal” lives and adapt to changing threats, both medical and socio-political, has created an opportunity for deep investigation that finds catharsis, much-needed humor, and rich forays into family memories. There are inviting dips into the pool of…

Character idiosyncrasies . . . Prompt #554

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How do writers develop characters? How do writers get to know their characters beyond their looks, their desires, and where they went to school? For this prompt, you can write about your main character, a supporting character, or you can write about someone you know. If you are writing about something that really happened, you can use that incident and those involved as your characters. When you write about real people, they become “characters” in your story. Here’s how it works: Interview your fictional character as a journalist would, but not at the age they are in your story. If they are older, interview a younger version of your character. If your character is young, imagine what he or she might be like as an older person. For your real-life person, have an actual interview, if you can.  If not, imagine what they were like as a child, a pre-teen,…

Transport readers

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“Your main job as a writer is to transport the reader to a fictional world, as in a dream. ” — “The Geyser Approach to Revision,” James Scott Bell, July/August 2011 Writer’s Digest Magazine You probably know this, but perhaps you’re stuck with knowing how to achieve that. A big part is the revision process. The following steps for revision are based on the Writer’s Digest article. Write Hot. Revise cool. Wait two weeks after writing to begin the revision process. Then, read fast as if you were a first-time reader. Take notes about what needs fixing. Capture original emotions you felt when writing. Listen to music that evokes the mood of your story. “Music reaches a part of your mind that you usually have inactive when analyzing. Wake it up and put it to work with tunes.” Create a collage to capture a visual representation of your work to…